Quote:
The dangers of second-hand smoke are documented but not yet as widely publicized as they should be. Smokers generally have a filter. Their unfortunate victims don't.


Penn & Teller's show, Bullshit, had an episode about second-hand smoke. P&T's thesis was that there is no documented evidence that secondhand smoke is dangerous, therefore smoking bans are, well, bullshit.

Regardless of the lack of studies about second-hand smoke, their logic just doesn't work. Fact #1: first-hand smoke is carcinogenic. Bad for you. No dispute about it. Fact #2: the smoke coming off the end of the cigarette and, likewise, the smoke being exhaled by smokers is, chemically, the same as the smoke being inhaled by smokers. It's not like a smoker's lungs magically clean the stuff up before they exhale it.

Given that it's a known bad thing, the only question concerns the concentration. What dosage are you getting from sitting in a smoky bar? How many hours in a smoky bar is equivalent to smoking one cigarette? That answer probably depends on how many people are smoking and how good the ventilation is. If you're at a Korean restaurant where every table has its own fume hood, you can smoke all you want and not bother your neighbor at all. Elsewhere...